Medium feeding apparatus
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorToru Hayashi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A medium feeding apparatus includes a feeding roller which feeds a medium unwound from a roll body around which the medium is wound, a roll motor which applies torque for rotating the roll body to the roll body, and a roll control portion which controls the roll motor at the time of a feeding operation based on effective tension calculated by acquiring a feeding amount of the medium fed at each of a plurality of acquiring timings included in a pre-feeding operation, which is a feeding operation performed in advance, acquiring tension applied to the medium between the roll body and the feeding roller between a plurality of the acquiring timings, and weighting a plurality of the acquired tensions with the corresponding feeding amount.
Claims2
A medium feeding apparatus comprising:
- a feeding portion comprising a feeding roller configured to apply a tension force to a medium to cause the medium to unwind from a roll body around which the medium is wound and configured to perform a feeding operation and a pre-feeding operation;
- a roll driving portion configured to apply a torque in a medium unwound direction to the roll body to reduce the tension force applied to the medium and to help unwind the medium;
- and
- a roll control portion programmed to:
- determine a distance of the medium fed based on an amount the feeding roller rotates,
- determine a diameter of the roll body based on Hall the distance of the medium fed and a number of rotations of the roll body caused by the distance of the medium fed,
- determine the torque that is to be applied to the roll body based on an effective tension calculated during a pre-feeding operation, such that a target tension is applied to the medium,
- during the pre-feeding operation,
- collect a plurality of tension values applied to the medium unwound from the roll body and a plurality of feeding amounts that the medium is fed during a plurality of time intervals, wherein each of the plurality of tension values corresponding to a feeding amount of the plurality of feeding amounts, and each of the plurality of tension values and each of the corresponding feeding amounts are collected at a same corresponding time interval;
- and
- calculate a weighted average of the plurality of the tension values, using each of the corresponding feeding amounts as the corresponding weight, the weighted average being the effective tension;
- and
- during the feeding operation, control the roll driving portion based on the effective tension.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.